This application claims a priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-251818 filed on Sep. 6, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
The present invention relates to an information processing unit on which an external storage device can be mounted, and more particularly, to an entertainment system whose main body has a receiving portion into/from which a card type external storage device can be inserted/extracted.
There is known a conventional information processing unit which records/reproduces necessary information in/from a small sized, external storage device such as a card type memory which is directly inserted into an insertion slot provided at the main body of the information processing unit for electrical connection. A game system disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.7-313730 has a configuration where a card type external storage device is prepared for each game player, the device is placed into the insertion slot of the main body of the game system, and information such as a game manipulation process of each of the game players is stored. Thus, the game information peculiar to each of the game players can be recorded in the card type external storage device, thereby the device being carried to another game system, and it is possible to immediately reproduce the game manipulation process of the previous game so as to resume the game, even in the different game system.
The entertainment system employing the card type external storage device as described above is convenient in that a user can carry a card type external storage device where his/her own game information is stored and resume a previous game even in another entertainment system. However, in the case where there are a plurality of types of entertainment systems and recording formats or the like are different among the system types, it should be determined whether or not the type of the external storage device can be adapted to the entertainment system so as to avoid a trouble. However, it would be difficult for the user to recognize all types of entertainment systems and understand which type of the entertainment system corresponds to which kind of card type external storage device. Also, viewed in the light of maintaining the convenience of the card type external storage device storing game information, it is desirable to establish a card type external storage device which can be utilized without any trouble by a user who has no knowledge of correspondence between the types of entertainment systems and the kinds of the card type external storage devices.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an external storage device to be connected to an entertainment system for storing game information, which can be readily connected to the entertainment system without any trouble, even if there are a plurality of types of entertainment systems and it is impossible to grasp the correspondence between the types of entertainment systems and the kinds of the external storage devices.
In order to achieve the above-described object, an external storage device for an entertainment system according to the present invention is provided, having the following features.
That is, there is provided an external storage device being connected to an entertainment system for receiving information from the entertainment system and for storing said information therein, having a connection portion to be connected to the entertainment system, wherein the connection portion has a shape to prevent the external storage device from being connected to a predetermined particular type of entertainment system.